LECTURE TWO

REMOTE PROCEDURE CALL

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is a protocol that one program can use to request a service from a

program located in another computer on a network without having to understand the network's

details. RPC is used to call other processes on the remote systems like a local system.

A procedure call is also sometimes known as a function call or a subroutine call.

A client has a request message that the RPC translates and sends to the server. This request may

be a procedure or a function call to a remote server. When the server receives the request, it

sends the required response back to the client. The client is blocked while the server is

processing the call and only resumed execution after the server is finished.

During an RPC, the following steps take place:

1. The client calls the client stub. The call is a local procedure call with parameters pushed

onto the stack in the normal way.

2. The client stub packs the procedure parameters into a message and makes a system call to

send the message. The packing of the procedure parameters is called marshalling.

3. The client's local OS sends the message from the client machine to the remote server

machine.

4. The server OS passes the incoming packets to the server stub.

5. The server stub unpacks the parameters -- called unmarshalling -- from the message.
 6. When the server procedure is finished, it returns to the server stub, which marshals the

return values into a message. The server stub then hands the message to the transport

layer.

7. The transport layer sends the resulting message back to the client transport layer, which

hands the message back to the client stub.

8. The client stub unmarshalls the return parameters, and execution returns to the caller.

9. The client stub is called by the client.

A diagram that demonstrates this is as follows –

RPC message procedure

When program statements that use the RPC framework are compiled into an executable program,

a stub is included in the compiled code that acts as the representative of the remote procedure

code. When the program is run and the procedure call is issued, the stub receives the request and
forwards it to a client runtime program in the local computer. The first time the client stub is

invoked, it contacts a name server to determine the transport address where the server resides.

The client runtime program has the knowledge of how to address the remote computer and server

application and sends the message across the network that requests the remote procedure.

Similarly, the server includes a runtime program and stub that interface with the remote

procedure itself. Response-request protocols are returned the same way.

RPC models and alternative methods for client-server communication

There are several RPC models and distributed computing implementations. A popular model and

implementation is the Open Software Foundation's (OSF) Distributed Computing Environment

(DCE).

RPC spans the transport layer and the application layer in the Open Systems Interconnection

(OSI) model of network communication. RPC makes it easier to develop an application that

includes multiple programs distributed in a network.

How does RPC work?

When a remote procedure call is invoked, the calling environment is suspended, the procedure

parameters are transferred across the network to the environment where the procedure is to

execute, and the procedure is then executed in that environment.

When the procedure finishes, the results are transferred back to the calling environment, where

execution resumes as if returning from a regular procedure call.

Types of RPC

There are five types of RPC:

1. The normal method of operation where the client makes a call and doesn't continue until

the server returns the reply.

2. The client makes a call and continues with its own processing. The server doesn't reply.

3. A facility for sending several client nonblocking calls in one batch.

4. RPC clients have a broadcast facility, i.e., they can send messages to many servers and

then receive all the resulting replies.

5. The client makes a nonblocking client/server call; the server signals the call is completed

by calling a procedure associated with the client.

Advantages of Remote Procedure Call

The advantages of Remote Procedure Call include the following:

 helps clients communicate with servers via the traditional use of procedure calls in high-

level languages;

 can be used in a distributed environment, as well as the local environment;

 supports process-oriented and thread-oriented models;

 hides the internal message-passing mechanism from the user;

 requires only minimal effort to rewrite and redevelop the code;

 provides abstraction i.e., the message-passing nature of network communication is

hidden from the user; and

 Omits many of the protocol layers to improve performance.

Disadvantages of RPC

Some of the disadvantages of RPC include the following:

 The client and server use different execution environments for their respective routines,

and the use of resources -- e.g., files -- is also more complex. Consequently, RPC systems

aren't really suited for transferring large amounts of data.

 RPC is highly vulnerable to failure because it involves a communication system, another

machine and another process.

 There is no uniform standard for RPC; it can be implemented in a variety of ways.

 RPC is only interaction-based, and as such, it doesn't offer any flexibility when it comes

to hardware architecture.

 There is an increase in costs because of remote procedure call.

Examples of RPC

1. Remote File Access

Remote file and database access is one of the earliest uses of RPC

2. Remote Graphics

An active monitoring program may call standard graphics primitive which are executed on a

remote workstation.
 3. Remote software task management Load /Start/Control

RPC allows a coordinating computer to perform the management functions needed to setup and

start the software in a large data acquisition system.

Local call and remote procedure call

a) Local call is processed by a server which hosts the program while remote procedure call

happens to processed on a different node of the network.

b) A local call is faster in nature where as a remote procedure call is slower in nature.

c) RPC is less reliable than a local call because RPC can fail due to network problem.

Prepared by Prince Augustine Wafula Ngomeh

Phone: 0720780398

Email:pawngomeh@kibu.ac.ke